Who’s The Best Chinese Noodle Eater Of Them All? A Frenchman, Of Course

Chinese shocked that a "laowai unexpectedly won"

The competition challenged six competitors to wolf down a kilogram of meat, two kilograms of noodles, three eggs, and a kilogram of vegetables – all within 20 minutes.

The winner, a Franco-Romanian, finished his meal in 18 minutes, 40 seconds amid chants of “Jiayou“.

A story in the Chongqing Morning Report paid special attention to the two non-Chinese competitors and their mastery of the chopstick:

The two laowai each used their chopsticks to stir around the bowl to grab a clump of noodles, which they ate by leaning their head to one side.

That description may sound like your average Zhou slurping at his noodles, but the two “laowai” also distinguished themselves by being the only two competitors to season their noodles with mala, the spicy-flowery flavoring unique to the region.

Do you have what it takes to be a Chongqing noodle eating champion? According to the report, the contest is an ongoing promotion at the restaurant, open to all customers.

Fun and games aside, China has struggled to adopt a healthy relationship with food consumption. “China is probably the only country in the world where UNICEF needs to work on over-nutrition and under-nutrition at the same time,” said Robert Scherpbier, chief of Health, UNICEF China.

This past spring, China overtook the USA to become the fattest country in the world, with 43.2 million obese men and 46.4 million obese women, each of whom face a health epidemic of obesity-related diseases. Meanwhile, UNICEF estimates that there are 12.7 million children in China who suffer from malnutrition.